Articles with nouns referring to unique objects
the - in
most cases
e.g. The whole country belongs to me, with the sky for a roof and the earth for a bed
the universe, the atmosphere, the ground, the horizon, the sea, the moon, the North, the South, the East, the West, etc
BUT: to lie/to go north of France (adverb)
a/an – with a descriptive attribute
e.g. From that height the white houses seemed to be pricked by a great orange sun
In the RHEME of the sentence
e.g. If there was a moon she turned off the lights and would watch it for hours
e.g. He saw a blue sparkling sea dotted with white sails